About Missing Identity

About The Missing Identity web site

INTRODUCTION.
Thank you for visiting our website.

We are two private persons who have worked on this website since 1995. Eva is the researcher. Anika is the webdesigner and webmaster. This renewed version of our website, now with its own domain, was made possible through the generous contribution of Mrs. Hanita – Izabella Leshem nee Waldbaum – Izabella Waldbaum on this website.

Like Hanita Leshem there are many other persons who survived Holocaust as children and tried for years to locate information regarding their past.
Some are still searching.Perhaps you can help them.

Some child survivors hope to find living relatives who can tell them about their parents and family.

Others hope to find out the most basic information about themselves:

their own name,

their birth date and birthplace,

the names of their parents.

Sometimes the name they have, is not their original name ( the name given to them by their parents when they were born), but a cover name used during the war or an invented name given to the child after the war when crossing borders illegally on their way to their new homeland.

By looking at the photos and reading the profiles of each child, you may be able to help.

THE HISTORY OF THIS WEBSITE.
In the spring of 1997 the Israel Broadcasting Authority – Israeli Television featured two documentaries called “Missing Identity”. The first program was produced as a joint venture with Polish TV. The profiles of twelve child survivors of the Holocaust, born roughly between 1935 – 1943, were presented in the hope that viewers in Israel or Poland would recognize the children and be able to help them in their search, thus solving the problems of their identities. In Israel the Missing Identity programs were produced by Vered Berman.Two of the Israeli viewers watching “Missing Identity”, Moshe Chertoff from Kibbutz Shomrat and Rami Rosengarten from Haifa, suggested that making a website for this project would enable people, not only from Poland and Israel, but from the whole world , to help. They enlisted the help of Netvision, an Israeli Hosting provider. That was the beginning of this site. Anika Kanter Movchine from Kibbutz Shomrat took upon herself the task of webmaster and webdesigner .Eva Floersheim from Shadmot Dvorah had worked as a researcher for the two TV programs. As she is also a member of the Galil Genealogical Society, the Missing Identity website became for some years a project of the Society under their president Tali Hadar z”l from Kibbutz Mizra. Erela Goldschmidt z”l from Shadmot Dvorah, a child survivor herself, was also an important person in collecting the relevant information from the other child survivors.Erela is also on this website. Vered Berman , the documentary TV producer, is still personally involved in this subject, and in the year 2000 she produced an additional documentary called “Hanita’s Missing Identity”.TODAY MORE THAN 70 CHILD SURVIVORS ARE SEARCHING FOR THEIR PAST.
Since 1997, additional child survivors have requested to have their profiles published on this site. As a result, today this site includes more than 70 profiles. Netvision stopped sponsoring the site in the autumn of 1998. Since then JewishGen has been our generous host.

Now in 2005 we have our own domain with more features to make each profile more dynamic and to make it easier to work on the website for both Anika and Eva.

This website is today, and has been for some years, a website run by two private persons. The texts and research are done by Eva Floersheim, and Anika Kanter Movchine continues to do the webdesign and acts as the webmaster. As we both work to provide for our lively hoods, the work is done out of our own spare time and pockets, this limits many aspects of the work. So if you can help us anyway:

Obtain the necessary information

Come with additional good ideas for research

Press the “Donation tab” tab found in the footer section on the pages [ your donation goes to a secure Paypal checkout and the accumulated funds will pay for web hosting, stamps and hopefully some time it will enable us to dedicate much more time to the project.]

All contributions will be very much welcomed.

RELATIVES SEARCH FOR CHILDREN LOST IN HOLOCAUST.
As we said earlier, the main purpose of this website is to help child survivors find information about their own past. But after the Missing Identity programs back in 1997, close to 140 letters were sent to the Israeli Television searching for children who were lost in the Holocaust. These were relatives – cousins, sisters, brothers and even parents, who after so many years still hoped that the child lost somewhere during the war may have survived. Perhaps he or she may even be one of the children with a missing identity.

note webmaster: we are revising these pages in order not to have many email displays. Please for now copy file number # and submit from Eva’s Form

SMALL SUCCESSES. BIG SUCCESSES.
Each profile on our site is a person now in their fifties or early sixties, most of them live in Israel, some in the States, some in Poland.

Some have actively searched for their identity their whole grownup lives – often with very little success. Others gave up many years ago.

Sometimes the word “success” in a search can mean getting just one little piece of information – your birthdate, f.ex. . In a very few cases the success is dramatic – finding a living relative – your mother, your brother, your aunt.

These successes happened sometimes with the help of the Missing Identity TV programs or through our Missing Identity website, but mostly because so many people from all over the world took the time to piece together different documents and information.

Sometimes, like in Polina Mishures‘ case, it was her husband Kelly Modlin who persisted for close to thirty years.
Sometimes it happened because the child survivor dared to stand forward and tell his/her story in a newspaper article or on a TV program.With the hope for more successes – small or big, we ask you to look through the information represented here to see how you can help.Eva and Anika